2014-04-09 - Father and Half-Son Reunion
Clayface isn't all that bright, and isn't exactly made of loyalty. When he lets the freighter slip, Kon gets a plan. He's flying out over the ocean now, his bright, primary colored suit left at home, wearing dark jeans and a dark, black T-shirt, a red S-Shield the only concession to his usual identity as he flies in under cover of night, not making a sound as he moves through the air. The Atlantic Ocean. A huge, monstorous part of the earth. One can go days, sailing it, without even seeing land. The expanse of this ocean is a large part of the circumference of the entire planet. But, there's one freighter there that may have the clue Kon-El is looking for. And, over the expanse of such an ocean, there are, of course, many such freighters. Hundreds of them. Going to the United States. To Japan. To England. To Africa. To South America. And at night, it makes certainly things harder to pinpoint, harder to see. But, harder to see for those aboard such ships as well. Most freighter have lights on deck, crews working or at least as a sign that there's a ship out there. Kon's keen vision, eventually, will spy one particular freighter that is slowly moving, without any lights. And it's present path takes it on course towards Antartica? Or, downabouts that way. As if it had no true direction to head. It's taken most of the night, dawn just, metaphorically, over the horizon as he closes in to the freighter, keen ears listening for any sign that he's been spotted as he very nearly skims the water. He focuses a little, and tries to look /through/ the freighter, seeing if the inside's as dark as the outside, and if and where any guards might be. As far as cargo? The ship has maybe fifty more of the exo-suits that 'Lex' displayed at the Expo. There are a few men on deck, a few more below. Mercenaries, all. Hired guns, and looking both restless, and bored, and armed. Not that such arms will be of much threat to Kon-El. And, towards the bottom of the freighter, a makeshift brig has been constructed out of very thick plexiglass and iron bars. And Lex Luthor is sitting on a bunk, eyes half-lidded. Waiting, like a serpent, looking irritated, drained, and tired. But, yet somehow, alert. That is, if it's the real Lex. It's too recently after Clayface got made, so Kon assumes it's the real deal. He moves, first, under the boat, heading to the back propellers, and, with a quick burst of heat vision, neatly cuts the power to the propellers. It's not the loud, sudden stop of if he'd smashed it, it could almost be confused for a legitimate engine failure. Then he's moving again, clinging to the back end of the boat, looking up, waiting for someone to investigate. Three men eventually come to the end of the boat; one, an engineer, two others mercanries. The engineer talks into a radio, "Nothing below in the engine room? There's nothing out here that we could've hit," he proclaims, sourly. The two mercaneries peer, cautiously, over the edge of the boat. Superboy hears the hiss of the radio, and abruptly changes plans, he flies around the boat, heading for the helm, his speed meaning the blur the mercenaries see when they look down might be easily mistaken for waves. He avoids anyone who might report him, but he's focusing on speed. Once to the helm, he'll destroy the radio, making sure they can't contact Savage and warn him of what he's doing. Of course, destroying the radio - which is now a smoking, red-hot mess, means that everyone - including the pilot who was where the radio is, knows Superboy is on the freighter. Or at least, they will when the gunshots from the Captain's pistol fires at Superboy's chest, and he bellows for reinforcements, that they're under attack. Eh, if they wanted silent, they should have pissed off a Bat. Superboy strikes out with an open palm, catching the pilot in the chest, knocking him back into a wall where he falls unconscious, and then he's on the move. He carefully controls his strength, using his teke to make blows that would have all the potential of lethality strike hard enough to knock out or disable. He'll have to point the coast guard this way once he's done. He's not showing off, just moving fast, fully abusing the sheer power differential between a half kryptonian and the hired help. The fight, despite the men's ferocity and training, doesn't last long. It seems that Savage never really counted on anyone actually figuring it out - and it might even come to mind that the mercenaries were less there to guard against incursions, as they were escapes. Or, in particular, one escape. In just a few short minutes, Superboy has the mercenaries above, and the few below, dispatched, and dealt with nearly effortlessly. And a few thousand bullet casings that lie scattered and impacted uselessly are the only signs that anyone ever fought back, against Superboy. As the fighting stops, and the ship quiets down, Superboy makes his way below decks, not touching the ground, using his flight to keep him quiet. The door to the improves brig slides open. "Morning, father. Ready to come back from your vacation?" Superboy asks, landing to stroll easily, confidently, towards Lex in his cage. Lex's hand is bandaged. And, looks like it might've been broken. The man continues to sit there, even as the door is open, just watching Kon, impassively. Then, "It's about time," he states, in that arrogant, impatient mannerism that is so much his persona. There's no gratitude, only expectation of the inevitable. Slowly, he rises to his feet. "It's about time Mercy did her job." Kon may notice, in the trash can outside the makeshift brig, a haphazardly constructed cellphone datacard, hooked to a safetypin sort of stylus, and a few other improvised items. It's how Lex managed to sneak the text message to Mercy. And, likely, how his hand got broken. Superboy gives a little frown, but it gives way to a smile. Yep, it's Luthor. "Sure, give Mercy all the credit. I'm the one that found you, you know." He walks over, and, with an easy effort, gets the cage open. "So, about our mutual enemy. They happen to let slip what all's been going on while Clayface was impersonating you?" "They didn't have to," remarks Lex, quietly, almost smugly. There isn't, perhaps, a more confident (mortal) man in the world. And many others beyond that who don't have the billionaires capability with dealing with a situation. There's no comment on Superboy finding him, and the gratitude that Kon may still be expecting doesn't come. "I already know what they want. It was obvious." At least, to him. "Let me guess. My LX5 Suits." "Outfitted with mind control technology of unknown manufacture," Kon agrees. "Sent to every city with a major hero presence, as a 'gift.' He's been riling up anti-hero sentiment, only to present the LX5 suits as a solution, a way to allow real, responsible and trained people to handle the threats only heroes could handle previously," he explains. "Throw in the mind control and Savage has an army, one we can't fight because it'd be hero versus cop, hero versus fireman, hero versus hero, but one strong enough to punish us for our hesitation. Mercy caught the chips, had them removed from the final design, they're mothballed currently, but I told her she should probably roll them out as planned, not let Savage know we're on to him until we're ready to fully expose him." He gives a little smirk, one that emphasizes a resemblance to a certain bald billionire. "Funnily enough, if he hadn't actually /kidnapped/ you, he might have made it a lot harder to hold him accountable." "And you want me to take the part of Clayface," presumes Luthor, ingeniously, "And act like everything is moving according to plan." The man pauses, after a few steps, to fix the sleeves on his jacket. Adjust his clothes. "The suits were designed for deep space expedition, and mining." Or at least, that's what he's saying. One can never tell, with him. "Savage made a proposal to me. I didn't accept it. Two weeks later, after a meeting with the Mayor, who, clearly was an imposter drugged my food or drink, and I wound up here." How much of that is true, too, is anyone's guess. "I presume," he remarks, expectantly, "You have a plan, then?" "They would work for that," Superboy admits, and considers Luthor, watching him. "And the Mayor was likely Clayface, or this impersonator from the New York side, Chameleon. Similar deal, except achieved through tech." He pauses, considering. "This entire thing, it's been a PR war. He holds these big political rallies, mostly staring 'you' where you talk about how awful we are, roll some footage of the damage we can cause, some real, some fake, most out of context. He's giving us the stage to basically unravel his plan. Mercy's already taken care of the 'mind controlled army of cops,' the arena to take him on now is one of public image, and, well, with a little help from you, you can burn that to the ground," he says. "If you're in. I figure you'd be pissed off enough to want to take a shot at him." "At least," replies Luthor, with a touch of sourness, a little bit of selfish indulgent pride, and quite a bit of disdain, "You're more clever than Superman." Indicating that Kon's got -something- from him that's worthwhile. The man nods, once. And, with that, begins walking out of the ship, having little desire to remain in the room any longer. He expects Kon to follow him, as Luthor does with anyone around him. "Then, we'll play his game. Clayface will need to contact him. And he can't be made aware Clayface is captured. And we'll call an impromptu meeting. Unscheduled. Cite complications. It won't be difficult." "Clayface is in STAR Labs, and, for once, a superhero fight managed to happen without the press nearby," Kon says with a smile. "Remember, the more public the stage we destroy him on, the more it actually shoots a hole in his plans. We've got more than enough rope to hang him with, between the kidnapping, associating with fugitives, though I guess you count there, or did you get pardoned again?" Luthor smiles that self-indulgent, 'you don't have anything on me' smile of his. The one that drives Superman absolutely insane. "I didn't do anything, remember? I've been here. The entire time. You're my witness." He knows Kon won't lie, or misrepresent the truth, in that fashion, he's too much like Superman. "We can manage this, I think. Care to get fitted into an Exo Suit? You. And three of your friends. Savage won't check them. He'll be ecstatic that we're bringing the suits out in public." He adds, with a dry note of amusement, "They'll be depowered. And inoperational, save serving as a disguise." Superboy actually considers that as he makes the way for the lifeboats. "Don't suppose you have access to an operational GPS? I was thinking of dropping an anonymous tip to the Coast Guard to pick up our friends here. Their engine failed, and now their radio's in operational. Shame." He takes a small measure of pride in the approach, knowing that, while it wasn't stealthy the whole way through, it'd none the less probably make his friends in Gotham proud. "As for the suit... I think some of my friends might prefer a grander entrance. Comes with the territory, but it's definitely an idea. For the record, I'll be checking them for the chip Mercy found." Luthor doesn't seem at all surprised, "For the record, the won't be there," he says, conversationally and without irritation. And, as they ascend up to the ship, he moves towards the head, noting the destroyed radio. "No," he answers, looking at Kon, knowing full well -who- smashed the radio. "We don't have a GPS." "Shame. I guess I can push it towards shore a bit," he muses. "Get it somewhere I can actually identify and give directions to." He looks to the unconscious pilot. "Though I think we might want /you/ off the ship before our friends regain consciousness." He pauses, and looks up. "Actually..." With that, he's out the door and straight up. When he returns a moment or two later, it's with an approximate latitude and longitude. "Give or take, and the boat'll likely drift on the currents, but it will give the authorities somewhere to start looking." Patiently, Luthor waits for Kon to either bring him a boat - or, fly him back to shore. "If the boat goes in," he points out, dryly, "Savage will know I escaped." He bends own, to pick up one of the impacted shell casings, "He might even be well equipped enough to figure out how. Though, not who." There's three of them, after all. Four if you count Power Girl. "We'll let them search for it for a bit. None of the men are too badly injured, they're stranded, but it'll be a while before they can get to shore under their own steam." He considers. "Alright, Lex, how we doing this? We're a good ways out, so probably the fastest way would be to carry you." There's a long consideration. A frown. Displeasure. Which, quite possibly, Kon will find worth the entire effort in of itself. Luthor /hated/ owing /anyone/, or relying on anyone, for anything. And he'll chalk up his freedom to his cleverness of getting the text to Mercy rather than to Mercy, or to Kon. It's just how his brain works. His reality. You just reside in it. "Fine." Irritable. "You can leave me at LexCorp. I'll need to speak to Mercy." Kon smiles a bit, the well meaning, long suffering kind of smirk that's sure to just piss Lex off more. He's a Luthor /and/ an El, and seems to be coming to terms with both legacies. "You know, 'dad', thank yous are free," he says, and, gently, mindful of the broken hand, he picks up Lex, and begins flying towards New York, actually using the few remaining stars and the rising sun to navigate. "You going to be able to disguise that hand?" he asks. "I'll do just fine," the man assures his own legacy - in a way. "Don't worry about it. You and all your - friends - just do their part." Yes, Lex wants revenge. No one goes behind Luthor, and ursurps his own company. "Thrilled," is Lex's irritable, dry snarkiness in return. "Now. Take me to Lex Corp. So we can get this over with." No. Lex does not look pleased. Nor likely wil he be for several months to come. Heaven help the scientists, and workers in his facilities. "You've got good people, Lex. Mercy's actually starting to grow on me, as weird as Kara finds that," Kon says, giving his father a smile and flying him back 'home.' The boss is back.